I Can See Through You
by tkelparis
Summary: As Nine realizes he's dying, he know that Rose has lost the right to be a companion. Disclaimer: This didn't happen, so not mine.


**Title**: I Can See Through You

**Series**: There's The Door!

**Rating**: T (regeneration imminent and angry Doctor)

**Author**: tkel_paris

**Summary**: As Nine realizes he's dying, he know that Rose has lost the right to be a companion.

**Disclaimer**: This didn't happen, so not mine.

**Dedication**: This was another thing that popped out of a plot bunny generation email discussion with tardis-mole. No one else could claim this one. :)

**Author's Note**: As soon as I generated the idea, I knew it was dang close to a song lyric. I don't remember which one, but I think the following line was something like, "right to the real you." Don't recall if the rest of the song fit, but I let the image drive this one.

**I Can See Through You**

**Started May 15, 2012**

Time Lords could tell a lot about a person just from touch. The closer the touch was to their mind, the more that could be detected. Mouth to mouth touching concealed practically nothing from a Time Lord.

Part of why, the Doctor knew, his people discouraged it. All about keeping a distance between yourself and the lesser beings' emotions.

More like they were trying to stop some renegades from further seeding other planets. Although it wasn't spoke of, he was positive that at least one was responsible for human existence. Might be why his human companions found him so appealing.

Especially Rose Tyler.

The girl had been a metaphorical breath of fresh air from the time she'd saved his life. He'd been amused by how her mind worked when they met, but he sometimes wondered whether his people had a point when they called humans stunted apes. He knew that wasn't completely true, but it hit rather close to the truth with a lot of them.

Sadly. Humans were capable of so much more. And would be in the future.

However, Rose had done more than a few things he could not condone. Inciting the Reapers, her flirting with a Boe-Kind just to make the person she wanted jealous while not caring what it did to Jack's feelings, and her treatment of Mickey were bad enough. Add in her thinking a Dalek could be tamed? That was insulting to his years and experience with the beings!

Today, however, was the final straw. He'd sent her home to safety, thinking he would never see her again, and what did she do? She'd found a way to rip the TARDIS open and steal her energy.

It was getting out of hand, so he had to sacrifice himself to stop the Bad Wolf. Which meant a kiss to draw the energy out. But what he detected from that kiss shocked and horrified him. The energy left her with no defenses, and so he saw completely through her pretensions and deceptions.

Rose's selfish nature went far deeper than he had ever thought possible. Her mother had been unable to say no to her where it truly mattered, had failed to teach her that life was unfair at times and that one had to put in difficult work sometimes to get anywhere. She learned to flirt and pout and cry her way around males to get what she wanted. She had used the memory of being violated as a shield against changing, which actually hurt her ability to move past the attack. And her mother's inability to get over losing Pete Tyler had given Rose a belief that it was fine to sleep around a bit – that there was truly no harm in it to anyone.

But the worst parts? She thought nothing of committing genocide against the Daleks – when she could have potentially sent them all away and disabled them to the point where they couldn't repair themselves. (He hoped.) She didn't understand that she hadn't "brought life", but had created something that ought not to have been – all done to someone she claimed to care about. She didn't grasp that what she had done was dangerous to herself and to him. She claimed that the TARDIS was sentient, but then ran roughshod over the ship's rights. She, in short, cared about nothing but what she wanted.

And – despite being deeply disturbed by aliens and anything not human – she wanted him. All to herself. To the detriment of the universe.

Finally her behavior made sense. He had never been on the receiving end of such treatment before. Being used as a meal ticket, seeing flirting meant to incite jealousy in him, and seeing others used so someone could get back to him. It was all simply disgusting and degrading.

He stared at her unconscious form and thought a moment. She had to be punished, and if he acted quickly enough, he could satisfy the Shadow Proclamation's demands – which they would make once they heard about it. Of course, he'd be turning her in to the Proclamation as of the scene of this crime. Not that it would've stopped the Proclamation of Rose's time, seeking her for a crime committed nearly 188,000 years in the future.

One idea came to mind. It stung for a moment, a painful reminder of what his own people did to two dear companions, but what else could he do? He didn't want to kill – he wasn't going to sink to her level. Not a chance. And he didn't want to deny Jackie Tyler her only child.

It hit him in the next instant how perfect the punishment was. It would prevent her from doing anything that awful to anyone else because she wouldn't know how to, and give Jackie a better chance at making a difference. He thought for a moment about regressing her instead, which would effectively eliminate Rose from existence (thereby satisfying the possible requirement of execution), but he wasn't sure about how to explain her away. He didn't want any ties to her. Oh, he would find ways of helping Jackie, but there was no way he was going to be called her father!

Of course, would it stop her from manipulating people?

So he knelt over her and touched her mind. It was disturbingly easy to access, even while she was unaware. He sought the memories starting from that night at Hendrick's and locked them away under the tightest mental wipe he could make happen. He felt the TARDIS guide him on it, ensuring that all of her memories were inaccessible. She would know that the building exploded, but she would assume she'd been caught up in it.

And just for cover, he'd get the TARDIS to help him fake injuries from hitting her head on something. To explain away the amnesia. And the sudden inability to flirt her way around people – especially males.

And maybe he'd ask Mickey to join him. The kid had proved less of an idiot than he'd thought. Perhaps getting him away from Rose, once he'd dropped her off and left instructions for others to help out, would be the true making of that boy.

He'd just have to make sure Rose remained unconscious until after he recovered from the regeneration. Hopefully Mickey and Jackie would let him stay until then. After all, the TARDIS wouldn't let her wake until they flew away.

He just hoped this new him wouldn't be attractive to Jackie. He didn't need another Tyler on him.

/=/=/=/=/

Rose sat in the family doctor's office, frustration radiating from her entire body. "Come on, anything?"

The old man fixed her with a narrow glare. "Rose, your memories still haven't returned. That head injury could've left you with serious brain damage. I'm surprised you haven't endured some severe retardation given the length of your coma. As it is, you've lost the ability to flirt. Although I can't find anything to suggest what was damaged to cause that."

Yes. That hurt, and meant that boys paid her no attention now.

Jackie cleared her throat. "But there's nothing that could hurt her ability to get an education or work again, right?"

Rose groaned.

"Oh, she's fine. Except for these lost memories. You're sure you don't know what happened to her?"

"Yes."

Rose was sure she thought she saw a flicker of a lie. She suspected her mother – and some of her friends – knew something. So why weren't they telling?

Not like they were telling. Any time she tried, they all pulled the "we were so worried about you" card. And several had stressed how the police thought Mickey kidnapped and killed her.

Speaking of, where was he? All her mother said was that he was travelling for his education. She was sure they were in contact, but her mother refused to confirm it.

So what could she do? She was going to be stuck going back to school. No one would hire her with over a year out of work, and there were some who thought she was responsible for Henrick's going up. Including some of her friends.

She hated people sometimes.

THE END


End file.
